Κυριακή, 2 Αυγούστου 2015

It is 1960, Rock’n’Roll has just lost a couple of its protagonists
during this and the previous year, the time of the great balladeers has
just begun but soon will run out due to the new and exciting beat
invasion. In US mainstream the tiki culture has reached a certain peak
and is about to collapse but still goes strong and with it comes the so
called “exotica” music, a crossover between smooth jazz and swing, Latin
grooves, haunting melodies that are rooted in the folkloristic sounds
from different parts of this world plus weird sound effects that often
create a spooky jungle or dreamy island beach atmosphere. It can even
bend your mind that far you would see palm trees growing out of your
speakers and witness monkeys and parrots having fun in your room.

Eden
Ahbez, born in 1908, passed in 1995, a man living an even more
consistent dropout and hippie lifestyle way before the movement was born
in the mid 60s, a beat poet and composer who wrote the hit tune “Nature
boy” that gave Nat King Cole his first big success in 1947, approaches
the field of exotica music from a different point of view creating an
epic concept album about an utopian society living in peace and harmony
on an island far away from the modern western world as we know it. And
indeed we find many trademarks of the prototypical exotica music
beginning with this relaxed groove combining easy listening swing and
Latin patterns, peaceful, dreamy and even transcendental vocal melodies,
tinges of folk music from around the world including powerful dances
and a whole color palette of mind expanding sounds giving the whole
music an even greater depth and width.
The latter being created entirely
with real instruments such as Eden Ahbez' wood-flute. Some tunes are
rather gentle and relaxed with the lyrics being narrated which adds much
to the epic feel of the album. Since this is a really unique effort, I
cannot really compare it to any other musical piece of the genre but
definitely recommend it to exotic aficionados who for example love Frank
Hunter's "White goddess" album from 1959. Psychedelic music before the
term was even invented.